Modelling local environmental quality and its impact on health. Background document for an international scientific audit of PBL team LOK

Modelling local environment quality and its impact on health

Background document for an international scientific audit of PBL team LOK.

Advisory Council of the ‘National Environmental Assessment Agency’ (PBL in Dutch) has requested that an international audit of the PBL methods be conducted. As part of this PBL-wide audit the dossiers for the physical local environment of the LOK team will be evaluated. This report has been compiled to provide the audit committee with the information required to conduct the audit. Besides making a scientific evaluation of the work, audit committee has also been requested to evaluate whether the scientific research links up sufficiently with the policy evaluations. The report therefore briefly describes the relevant policy in the various dossiers, with examples of policy evaluations. This concerns the following dossiers: air traffic, noise, air quality, external safety and health in relation to environmental quality.

Because the policy dossiers are based on different traditions and approaches, the approach to research and policy evaluation also differs between the dossiers. The present report extensively addresses the methods and data that are important to these dossiers and the uncertainties that play a role in them. A separate chapter will describe how uncertainties are dealt with in the policy evaluation.